Grate



July 6 G. SIMMONS GRATE Original File ly 6. 1925 Patented July 6, 1926.

UNITED STATES raise PATENT orri cs.

'GORDON'SIMMO NS, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR TO ENTERPRISE FUELCOMPANY, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ACGEPORATION OF MARYLAND.

GRATE.

Application filed .Tu1y'6, 1925, Serial No. 41,645. Renewed April 12',1928.

This invention relates .to furnace grates and particularly to grates forburning the smaller sizes of anthracite coal, such as buckwheat, rice,and barley and has for its principal object the provision of a gratewhich can be built into an existing structure primarily intended forburning the larger sizes of anthracite such as'stove, egg, and furnace,without the necessity of fabricating special parts for each job. r

A further object of the present invention is the provision of grateelements that can be assembled on a bar cut from commercial rolledsections and assembled on the existing pins or trunnions of a furnace.

Owing to the steadily increasing cost of the larger sizes of anthracitecoal, many endeavors have been made to utilize the smaller sizes ofanthracite coal which smaller sizes sell for very much less per ton thanthe so called household sizes butthe ash ring at the side of ordinaryfurnaces is so great and the interstices between adjacent fins of usualgrates is so great that the smaller sized coals cannot be utilizedexcept occasionally, as for example to sprinkle over a bed of largersized coal when the fire is to be banked.

It is possible generally to use the smaller sizes'of anthracite coalonly by providing a different grate but in order to secure the economymany stoves and furnaces are now being altered so as to be able to burnthe smaller sizes. It is obviously a simple matter to take out theexisting grate intended for'egg size coal and to replace it with asmaller rice or buckwheat size grate bar if the manufacturer makes bothsizes which is not at present the case with any large maker. It istherefore necessary to build up a new grate and the cost of this isabsolutely prohibitive unless the grates can be sold in extremely largequantities for each separate make and size.

Utilizing the device of the present inven- 'tion it is possible, andwith not an excessive number of different sizes, to load sufficientpieces on a truck and drive to a furnace and without loss of time toassemble a proper grate in the furnace from the standard pieces carriedas will be further explained.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a plan view of a round body stove equippedwith a grate in accordance with the present invention.

. Figure 2 is a similar view of a square body furnace. Figure 3 is avertical cross section thru the stove shown in Figure 2.

Figure 4. is a vertical se tion taken along the axis of one of the corepieces or bars.

Figure 5 is an elevation of an end piece.

Figure 6 is a view'of an ordinary type of filler.

Figure 7 is a view of a special'type.

Figure 8 is a view of a type equipped with a downwardly extending lugfor attachment to a shaker bar.

Taking the type of stove or furnace shown in Figure l, for example, thelarge body casting is provided with a number of bearings such as 9,these bearings having been intended to receive the cylindrical lugs ofthe old larger sized grate bars, such grate bars usually being cast in asingle piece. In accordance with the present invention these old gratebars have been taken out and it is desired to fit into the body a gratewhich will burn the real small sizes of coal. A pair of end pieces isprovided for each grate bar, one of these end pieces such as 12 beingprovided for each bearing place 9 and each having a cylindrical lug '11corresponding in size, shape, and purpose with the similar members ofthe old grate bars, these sizes be ing pretty well standard so there islittle difficulty in fitting them in place. 7

Each end piece 12 has a rectangular opening 14: therein of such size asto fit a standard, rectangular, wrought iron or rolled steel section orbar- It is often convenient to attach one of the end sections 12 to eachbar 10 at the shop and before arriving on the tend to and thru the sidebars as shown in Figure 4 and should be keyed to them as by means of thepin 17. I prefer to make these end pieces rather heavy and find thatthree times the thickness of an ordinary grate element is verysatisfactory. I therefore provide a triangular seat 18 in the centralportion of the end pieces and of a length to hold .job as the bar mustnecessarily always ex- 13 have seating portions 30 of the same thicknessas the face 19 and having opposing lips 31 whereby they are securedagainst upward or downward movement on the seat of the end piece 12altho they can readily be slid sideways into place on the end pieces.

The main portion of each grate bar consists of a plurality of similarelements 15 each having a vertical web 35 with an up per arcuate, adouble flanged rim 36 and a box or frame 37 extending from either sideof the web a distance slightly greater than the extent of the flanges ofthe rim 36 so that, as shown in Figure 4, the boxes or frames 37 willposition these elements so as to leave a small space between adjacentrims 36.

At the proper place on the length of the bar 10-, as determined by theposition of the existing shaker bar lever 25, pivoted to the bodycasting in some fashion, usually by means of, a bracket 26', an elementquite similar to the element 15 is located, these elements 20 differingin that they are provided with an elongated downwardly extending lug 21perforated as at 22 to receive a bolt 23 to fasten it to the shaker rod24:.

To install one of these grates for burning small size coal, the bar 10is cut to length to fit and if one end 12 is not already secured to itit is now secured in place and two of the elements 13 of propertransverse length, as determined by the furnace itself, are slipped inplace, then a number of ap propriate sized elements 15 are slipped overthe bar 10, then a lugged element such as 20 and then the main body ofthe elements 15, which may be all of the same size or which may vary.For example, the existing body of the furnace shown in Figure 2 lendsitself to the use of a single size as the dimension from front to back,and the location of the bearings is such that all three of the gratebars may be of the same width and the three will just fit the body.

I11 the circular furnace shown in Figure 1, however, the body isirregular, having a plurality of bays 40 at each side and having arounded front 41 and a rounded back 42. In this case the center bar maybe made with only two different sizes of plates or ele ments. Viewingthe furnace from the front and counting from the left, the first elementshown is the rim of the end section 12 and it is of fairly large size.The next two elements are like that shown in Figure 7 and are of thesame transverse length or greatest dimension as the end pieces, but allof the elements in the center of this bar are of the same size. Thefront and back bars, which it will be noted, are smaller andinterchangeable, are composed of a great number of elements each onedifferent altho one dimension from edge to axis of the bar, it will beseen, is constant. This constant dimension may be selected in practiceto suit ones fancy but I find that 2 inches is a very useful standard.In assembling the front and back grate bars the workmen will select fromthe stock on the wagon progressively increasing sizes up to the centerand then duplicates for the other half. The number of different sizesmust necessarily be such as to take care of practically any constructionbut I have had very great success so far with less than thirty differentpatterns and find that with this number I can meet substantially anyrequirement without allowing a hole to exist in the grate of suflicientsize to pass coals of the size intended to be burned. The provision ofthe breakage slots 28 enable me to restrict the number of diiferentpatterns in this manner.

IVhile the specific size of any piece is not a part of the invention Ihave found in practice that the most convenient thickness for the fillersections is about inch which would make the end pieces 1% inches thickand I find it convenient to space the breakage slots inch apart. Thebreakage slots sever the two flanges entirely and continue down the webof the filler as a score on each side. In practice I find that there isno appreciable danger of breaking accidentally along these severancelines, but at the same time when one of the elements is placed in a viceit is not at all difficult to crack oif the unwanted portion with asharp blow from an ordinary hammer.

hat I claim is 1. A grate consisting of a length of commercial metalsection, a plurality of end pieces secured to said section at the endsthereof, a plurality of grate members slidably mounted on said sectionand a plurality of grate members mounted on each end piece and providedwith means preventing their removal transversely of said section andbeing held in position against longitudinal .ovement by the gratemembers positioned between the two end pieces.

2. A one-piece grate element consisting of a flat web having an arcuatetop and its sides converging from the ends of the top to the bottom andhaving a rectan ular hole near the bottom; a flange extencing from eachside of the web at the top to form a coal supporting rim, and a hollowrectangular frame surrounding said hole and extending from said web oneach side to a plane beyond the side edge of said rim.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

GORDON SIMMONS.

